Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, will host a YouTube livestream on June 7, 2024.
Source: Roaring Kitty | YouTube
The rally-in Tough shares lost steam Monday as traders responded to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showing meme stock trader “Roaring Kitty” taking a stake in the e-commerce pet food retailer.
The submission showed that Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, bought just over 9 million shares – representing a 6.6% stake in the company. That makes him Chewy’s third largest shareholder, according to FactSet. Based on Friday’s closing price, that stake is valued at more than $245 million.
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The stock rose more than 9% on Monday, but quickly fell into negative territory during morning trading. Shares ended the day down 6.6%.
The SEC filing also included a section that read: “Check the appropriate box to indicate if you are a cat.” There was an “x” next to a response that read, “I’m not a cat.” This phrase was included in Gill’s statement during a series of Congressional hearings on the 2021 GameStop trading mania.
Chewy’s shares took a wild ride last week after Gill posted a photo on social media platform X of a cartoon dog that resembled Chewy’s logo. Shares rose as much as 34% on Thursday, but ended the day on a low note.
CNBC sent an email to Chewy’s PR team asking for comment on the new shareholder.
Gill is known as a champion of GameStop and has fueled trading for the video game company in recent months. In mid-June, he announced a stake of 9.001 million GameStop shares after exiting his huge call option position. It’s unclear whether he sold his GameStop bet to finance the purchase of Chewy.
GameStop shares fell more than 5% following the news.
There is a big connection between GameStop and Chewy. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen was the founder and first CEO of Chewy, who was instrumental in Chewy’s acquisition by PetSmart in 2017 and its subsequent initial public offering in 2019.
Cohen joined GameStop’s board of directors along with two other Chewy executives in January 2021, partially helping fuel the initial GameStop rally. He later took over as CEO of GameStop in 2023 and led a turnaround at the brick-and-mortar video game retailer.
In a recent YouTube livestream, Gill said that GameStop is in the second phase of a reinvention, and that it has become a bet on Cohen himself, who has also played a leading role in e-commerce.
The investor was hit with a new class action lawsuit filed Friday, alleging he committed securities fraud by manipulating GameStop’s stock price through his online influence in May and June. The case was voluntarily dismissed on Monday.
Gill is a former marketer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance. He came into the spotlight after successfully encouraging retail investors to buy GameStop stock and call options in 2021 to squeeze out short-selling hedge funds.